NBC will be be paid in cash and with a senior note issued
by A&E, the company said today in a filing. The price implies a
$19.2 billion value for all of the company, which includes A&E,
Lifetime and the History Channel cable networks.

The sale brings Philadelphia-based Comcast cash it can use
to help purchase the rest of NBC Universal, Marci Ryvicker, an
analyst with Wells Fargo Securities, said in a July 6 research
note. Disney, based in Burbank, California, and Hearst, in New
York, gain complete ownership of A&E, which also includes
Military History and Crime & Investigation Network.

History Channel’s “Hatfields & McCoys” miniseries, about
the famous U.S. family feud, drew record cable audiences in May.

The three-way ownership structure for A&E Networks was
created in 2009 when New York-based NBC Universal, Disney and
Hearst merged the Lifetime and A&E cable channels.

The accord included a provision for NBC to leave the
partnership if it chooses and for Disney and Hearst to become
50-50 owners. Comcast exercised its option on March 26.

Comcast, the largest U.S. cable system, rose 0.3 percent to
$31.35 at the close in New York. The shares have gained 32
percent this year. Disney, the world’s largest entertainment
company, lost 1.3 percent to $47.36 and has advanced 26 percent
in 2012. Hearst is closely held.

General Electric Co. can sell half of its remaining 49
percent NBC Universal stake to Comcast in June 2014, and the
rest in January 2018, according to Ryvicker. She estimates that
the 2014 transaction would cost Comcast $7 billion to $8
billion.

Comcast, which valued the A&E stake at $2.02 billion in
financial statements as of March 31, has a strategy to sell
assets it doesn’t control, according to Ryvicker.